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If you are like most agents and advisors, you've probably discovered that it's much harder to acquire a new client for your financial services practice than to keep the ones you already have.
After all, unless someone is referred to you by an existing customer, getting a new client means you must start the practice of building and maintaining trust from scratch.
(Related: What to Do When Prospects Go Dark)
Even if you manage to convince a new customer of your competence and trustworthiness, there is still the tendency for clients who don't have a history with you to push back against your advice, especially at the beginning of the relationship. It makes sense that client retention and prospect nurture should be at the core of all thriving financial services practices.
Studies by several major business schools indicate that financial consultants and agents could increase their incomes up by thousands of dollars by reducing their loss of current clients by as little as 5%.
All financial advisors and insurance agents should consistently reach out to existing clients and maintain a good prospect list "hygiene." Your client and prospect list needs to be regularly updated. Duplicate data and bounced or inactive email addresses should be removed.
Once your list is clean, you can begin the process of designing effective outreach campaigns.
Some reasons to focus on database marketing are to:
1. Stay top of mind.
Nurturing existing clients can increase retention dramatically. Sending cards on special days, a monthly newsletter or white paper, or even a short phone call will remind your clients to think of you.
2. Reduce the time it takes to close.
Working within your database cuts down on the number of "touches" needed to make a sale. When you reach out to existing clients or prospects who have already met you, read your content, or connected with you on social media, you don't have to work as hard to get to "Yes!"
Al Martinez is a retirement planning specialist at 
